WOW !!!! make sure you negotiate a price for shipping !

[Guest maxfactornackerlacker]

Hi all,

just felt that i had to tell you guys about this.

 

I am currently organising the shipping of our stuff for the end of December. I contacted about 5 or 6 companies, asking them for quotes. 1 of them never replied at all. 3 replied with quotes as an estimate, and 2 came out to measure up properly and provide a detailed quote.

 

They were all about a similar price of around 4 grand, although one of the online companies made an initial quote of 3500. They seemed a little sketchy, and i was not confident about usuing them. Anyway, i got real busy at work, and did not reply to any of them for about a week. I then started getting phonecalls from them all, asking if i had made a decision yet ? I told them all that I had been given a cheaper quote, and tht if they wanted to reconsider their initial quote, then i would be more than happy to take another look at them. They all came back with much lower quotes !! One dropped 500 quid whilst on the phone !!

 

Anyway, i had decided on my choice of shipper, between two that were shortlisted, and was about to book. The other company then phoned again, and asked what was happening ? I told them , that the other company may be my choice, and there and then on the phone, the chap said that he would also give me free content insurance of the shipment which was probably going to cost me about 2-300 quid !

 

I am never really comfortable haggling, or playing companies against each other, it hust happened that i accidentally did, because I was too busy at work to get something sorted !!

 

I reckon that I have probably saved about 6 -700 quid from the price that i was going to pay, for not really doing much ?

 

|I may have been lucky - everyone may already do this ? - or, it may be a useful piece of advice for anyone about to book their shipment !

 

Cheers

Max

[Guest vikkiann]

Get used to haggling, everyone does it here!

[snifter]

Haggling prices down on shipping is kind of expected. And worthwhile. Lots of people do it. If you don't you could be losing out on some big savings.

 

The only thing I would say is that the general consensus on using the shipping companies own insurance is that people say its better to go with a separate company like Insure Your Move or some such.

[Guest guest8040]

Thanks for this I wondered whether it was worth trying but going to give it a go!

[Guest maxfactornackerlacker]

Obviously this haggling game is common for shipping, but i didn't expect it ??

Just to finish my story off......

I got into the haggling game, - eventually, i got a 'further' 100 quid reduced off the price again, and agreed to the company that i wanted in the first place ! ..... so that was 550 quid off their original quote, and free insurance.

I have learnt a lesson there.

[Guest maxfactornackerlacker]

.

 

The only thing I would say is that the general consensus on using the shipping companies own insurance is that people say its better to go with a separate company like Insure Your Move or some such.

 

 

Yes Snifter - i have read the stories about the problems some people have had with shipping companies joint insurance, and had planned to go seperately. However, i have decided that , i will take the risk with their insurance for a couple of hundred pounds ??? ..... this might prove to be my downfall, but i have always gambled with certain things like this on insurance policies ??..... i will let everyone know if it pays off or not !!!

Thanks

Max

[Guest vikkiann]

I used the insurance company linked with our removal company and I'm so glad I did. We are still in the process of waiting for the claim to be settled but it has been so easy with it being in house